Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Our Disney Vacation 2014 {day 3-part 1}

Day 3: Saturday, February 8
We packed up and made the quick drive over to ASMovies. I had done online check-in, so everything was ready. We activated our Magic Bands, which would get us into our room, into the park, pay for meals, and access Fast Passes. It was our first trip using them, and overall they worked very well.
I had added a special occasion to our reservation. We have never done the pins {except for Senior Trip}, and since we have been married 30 years, almost 31, I thought why not? We were given our pins and a fresh flower, along with all of our paperwork. Our room wasn't ready, but we could begin using our dining and park tickets any time. We put everything in the SUV, and headed for the bus to Magic Kingdom. The weather today was partly sunny/cloudy and it spoke of showers, so we packed our ponchos just in case.{side note: we loved the bus set up at the value resorts. I had dreaded this the most, due to the number of guests that stay at values, but the bus system ran very smoothly.}
We got on the bus and ended up being the only two people on it! This rarely happens.:0)

There are few things more exciting than walking down Main Street and seeing the castle {even with the crane next to it!}.

We ran into the Dapper Dan's as we walked down Main Street.

I posted all about that here. That was such a great start to our trip.

As we headed towards the castle, I spotted a marriage proposal! :0)

I suggested trying "Be Our Guest" quick service for lunch. It was new to us, and was set up differently from the other QS restaurants. There was a line to get in, actually two lines, stand-by and fast pass. There are fast passes for everything now, even dining. {side note: more on the new Fast Pass+ kiosks later}.

We got in the stand-by line which moved along pretty quickly. A light rain started, so we pulled out our ponchos. The queue at Be Our Guest is very well done....

Once inside, you are directed to one of the kiosks where you order your own lunch and pay with your Magic Bands. I really like this set up. Once inside the dining room, you choose a seat and wait for one of the servers to come to your table. You fill your own drink at the soda station and grab your silverware from another station. There are servers rolling carts around looking for which table the food belongs to. The only drawback to this type of quick service is it wasn't all that quick. If you aren't in a hurry, the food is well worth the wait and is an awesome value on the dining plan.

I got the roast beef sandwich and Peter got the salad w/seared tuna. Both were very good. The lemon meringue cupcake was absolutely yummy!

The dining room is beautiful.

This place was new to us, but we would definitely go back again sometime.

Cost for lunch: approx. $40.00 {or 2 QS credits}

When we came out of the restaurant it was raining a little harder, so we decided to do something inside. Mickey's Philharmagic was on our list. It's a favorite 3D show! Next, we rode the riverboat, something we hadn't done in years.

We got a text that our room was ready so we decided to head back to the resort and take a break. We stopped in the Christmas shop to get an ornament.